Flashlights and Lasers

If you want to upgrade your older 4-6 D cell Mag-Lite, be very cautious about the Terralux TLE-310M-EX MiniStar 1000 Lumen Conversion Kit

Hi folks,

I actually buy what I post about so if something doesn’t work, I’m going to report it.  In 2015, I upgraded my three Mag-Lites with TerraLUX TLE-6EX Ministar5 140 Lumen LEDs.  Those have worked great – they are bright, durable, and easy on the batteries.  A few weeks back, I ran across an Amazon listing for a TerraLUX TLE-310M-EX Ministar31M-EX LED Conversion kit for 4-6 D cell Maglites.  Now that kind of excited me – 1,000 claimed lumens plus I had good luck with their bulb replacements so the upgrade kit seemed like a no brainer.  Unfortunately, I was not so lucky this time because it did not fit either my four or five D-cell lights.

The conversion kit looks well made and is super easy to install — or at least it should be if it will fit the head of your light:

To be fair to TerraLUX, my 4-D cell Mag-Lite dates back to the early- to mid-1980s.  My 5-D cell was bought by my dad for his own use shortly there after.  The 3-D cell I have was bought by my dad at an unknown time.  I just want to point out right up front these are older lights.  To get to the point, the TLE-310M only fit the 3-D cell the way it should but it was not recommended for that few of cells plus was not as bright.

My best guess is that Mag-Lite evolved the shape of the flashlight’s heads over the years.  My 4-D cell’s head actually is curved inside behind the reflector.  The 5-D cell is flat inside.  The 3-D is flat inside too but it look like the stem that holds the bulb sticks up further.  When I screwed the TLE-301M straight onto the bulb stem, WOW.  On my 5-D cell, my Lux meter could not go up that high.  The problem is that the kit would not fit with the head on the way it should.  I suspect the positive contact on the bottom of the kit could not touch the Mag-Lite’s positive contact.

Here’s the 5-D cell taken apart with the conversion kit.  Normally to install the kit, you would just remove the bezel, lens, reflector and bulb.  The kit then screws in place of the bulb.  I had it all apart trying to figure out what was going on.

At this point I was getting a bit miffed.  I did not take a picture of my 4-D cell taken apart but it definitely had a conical shape under the reflector and the kit again would not make contact with the head in place.  if I screwed the kit right on to the stem, it was fine but no-go with the head on.  Note, they say to turn the head for the kit and positive contact to come together – that did not work on either the four or five cell lights no matter how firmly I turned the head.

Here is my 3-D light.  Look at how far the stem is sticking up with the head on! Sure enough the kit installed just fine on that light *but* it had fewer cells than recommended and it negatively impacted the brightness.

Here is the light output measured before (60,500 Lux because the meter is set to the x100 Lux range) and after (119,800 Lux) on the 3-D cell light:

So it did almost double the light out the front but not enough for me to want to spend $50.  When I did the test with the 5D cell with just the conversion kit screwed straight onto the stem with no head, the output exceeded the meter’s 200,000 Lux limit.  Wow – it was bright.  I sure wish it would have fit.

The one plus out of all this is that I did discover my 3-D cell’s light needed a bit of silicone grease on the threads to turn smoother and it had an old plastic lens that I upgraded to clear glass unit from Neutek:

Bottom line, I returned it the conversion kit to Amazon.  I feel TerraLux should have known it wouldn’t fit all lights — shouldn’t they?  So, if you have an older Maglite (say 1980s or 90s), stick with the single bulb upgrade to LED (the TerraLUX TLE-6EX) and you’ll be a happy camper.  If you have a newer Mag-Lite, you may be okay but I do not know that for sure.

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This is the conversion kit you should be cautious about in terms of fitting an older light – the quality looked very good:

The single LED unit listed below is in use in all three of my 80s/90s Mag-Lites and works great.  No problems yet of any kind!

7/20/19 Update:  The TerraLUX Ministar 5 TLE-6EX-CNC LEDs are still working great in my lights.  They have survived multiple winters, bouncing around in vehicles, camping, etc.  I’m very happy with them.  Definitely upgrade your lens as well with the unit above.

2/19/20 Update:  Still no problems.

 

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AK & Related Rifles

Video: How the SVD Dragunov Works Using 3D Animation. — Pretty cool!!

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I love computer animations that show how a firearm’s action operates.  This video on the SVD Dagunov is narrated in Russian but you can definitely see how the gasses flow and hit the piston, push the operating rod back, and then operate the bolt and trigger.  I think videos like this provide valuable insight into what all is going on.

This one is very detailed and fascinating.  Definitely worth watching!

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Tools

How to read engine codes Via the OBD II Port with your smart phone – welcome to the new age

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Guys, I remember tuning a car by ear with a timing light, vacuum gauge, feeling things out literally with my hands and so forth.  Boy has the world changed.  As the vehicles got smarter and smarter, someone decided to add On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) in the early 1980s first with the idiot “check engine” light and then it got more and more involved.  Modern cars and trucks in the US have an OBD II jack where you can plug in, read and clear fault codes, access real-time information and so forth.

Back in 2013 I saved my pennies and finally bought my own Autel Autolink Scanner for $102.  Wow – I thought was so cool.  I used it whenever fault codes popped up to figure out what it was but I had to lug the thing around and it wasn’t something you could readily update, etc.

A friend of mine came over about a year back to check on one of our cars.  He pulled a little black rectangle out of his jacket, plugged it into the car and then started looking at his phone.  I asked him what he was doing and he showed me that he was accessing the codes.  I was floored.

In June 2016, I decided to go the phone route to have a current scanner and a better interface.  After digging, I bought a BAFX Products 34t5 Bluetooth OBDII adapter for Android phones (about $22)  and I got the Torque software for my Samsung Note Android phone off the Google Play store for free.  What a difference.  The BAFX adapter was easy to carry around, I could customize the gauges I was looking at, and so forth.  For me this combo rocks.  It does all I need.  I really like it being cordless – you can walk around and so forth and still see the data.

By the way, installation is simple.  You follow the instructions to pair the scanner to your phone just like you would any other Bluetooth Device.  I downloaded Torque from the Google Play store on my phone in a matter of minutes and it is pretty much good to go.  You can create profiles for different vehicles in the software, change gauges you want to watch, their style, how they are grouped and so forth.

The following are screenshots from my phone plus you can see the little adapter that is a bit smaller than a cigarette box.

I use Torque to read and reset the ODB2 codes as needed. I really like it.
The Torque app lets you set up different gauges or even go in and look at the data.

  

This plugs into the ODB2 port

For example, my 2002 Camry’s check engine light is on and I could use the BAFX adapter and Torque to find out what the code was and then search using Google to decide what to do:

Yeah, you have to love that check engine light.

 

I really like the combination and recommend them.  In general, I am amazed by all the functionality that is showing up where the smart phone provides the brain and display thus dropping costs dramatically.  My recent GiraffeCam endoscope is another example.

By the way, I am so happy with this combination of BAFX scanner and Torque software that I sold my Autel scanner on eBay.

9/.29/21 Update: I still have the original two. They have saved my bacon many times and I always take one with us on trips. I highly recommend them. They have bounced around in the glove box, in the console, baked in the summer heat and frozen in subzero weather and they still work.

2/27/20 Update:  I now have a couple of them and use them all the time with Torque.

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AK & Related Rifles

Video: SVD Dragunov 7.62×54mmR Sniper Rifle by ArmlistMedia – Great Overview Plus Field Stripping

One of my regrets is that I have not had the funds and opportunity (at the same time) to buy a SVD Dragunov.  For those of you who do not know it, the Dragunov was developed as a designated marksman rifle (DMR) by the USSR and has evolved over the years.  Contrary to what some say, it is not an oversize AK – the Drag’s bolt carrier does not have an attached piston and all the mass associated.  Instead, there is a short stroke piston operating under left & right handguards over the barrel.  You get to see all of that and very straight forward field stripping guidance in this video.

 

I really like this video.  The narration is very straight forward with a touch of humor and the video quality is solid.  Some day, I will own a Drag 🙂

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Air & C02 Rifles and Pistols

Sluggish Marauder Mag Fix: Try #3 – Change the Internal Spring Position – This is the best fix!

Please note that there are three posts in this series.  The method in the third post would fix just about any magazine while the other two helped some of the magazines:

  1. Sluggish Marauder Mag Fix:  Try #1 – Loosen the Center Screw
  2. Sluggish Marauder Mag Fix:  Try #2 – Dry Film Lubricants – Not a Good Fix – But Avoid 3-In-1 Dry Lube Because It Isn’t Dry!
  3. Sluggish Marauder Mag Fix:  Try #3 – Change the Internal Spring Position – This is the best fix!

Now on to the post:

Ok, in the first couple of tries, I had some success loosening the center screw on a couple of the sluggish mags.  Marginal improvement with dry lube but that didn’t fix two.  What resurrected the two worst magazines was to disassemble the magazines and move the spring’s anchor leg to the center hole.   What this did was to increase the tension of the spring and boy, did that fix the problem in spades.  In the future, I would try loosening the center screw and if that didn’t work, I’d go right to this spring adjustment:

Here are the steps:

  1. Note where the spring is at currently my looking in the holes in the back of the magazine.  If you see metal, that is the leg of the spring.  All of my mags have had the spring’s leg in the same place from the factory thus far:
  2. Remove the center screw and disassemble the magazine with a 1/16″ hex key.  Pay attention to how it fits together and also look for any debris or burs that might be causing drag:   

    In this next photo, look at the spring.  The downward leg is the bottom and the sideways leg is the top and the center of the drum has a slot that the top part of that spring nestles into:

  3. Move the drum’s spring to the center hole in the track where the pellets are carried.  . See the oily crap … I mean “film” in the mag?  That is courtesy of the 3-in-1 supposed dry lubricant that I will never use again and got cleaned out right after I took this photo:
    If you aren’t sure what hole I mean, look at this next photo.  Magazines PA2 and PA4 have the spring located to the new hole half way around the magazine track.  PA1 and PA3 still have the springs in the original hole and seem to work ok.  This is also a good example of how labeling your mags helps you keep track of what is going on.  PA1 was the worst by far.
  4. Align the drum with the top of the spring and then carefully rotate the assembly clockwise slightly angling the long part of the drum so it will clear the part of the magazine that forms the start/end of the magazine area that holds the actual pellets.

  5. Install the top so the brass pin that is embedded in the clear magazine cover rides in the groove of the drum.  I slide the cover on upwards from the bottom while keeping the center secure otherwise it will fly out.
  6. Re-install the screw.  Tighten it down until the cover can’t lift up and adjust the screw in/out until you feel the right amount of tension on the cover and it can move.
  7. Test by turning the top – you should feel way more spring tension now.

So in my testing, this worked great.  If just loosening the cover a bit works for you, then great.  If not, take it apart and move the spring.  Note – I did try spraying the good Dupont Teflon dry lube in one of the magazines and I can’t say that there is a noticeable difference.  You can if you want to experiment, but I’m not going to bother going forward.

I hope this helps you out!

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Uncategorized

Check out Gregory’s AK with Refinished Wood

Gregory shared this with me and I was so impressed by the clean lines that I had to post it:

I asked what he did for the wood.  Gregory said he rubbed in three coats of red Oak stain.  It’s sharp!

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AK & Related Rifles, Military

Video: Troops training with the Zastava M76 and M91 Designated Marksman Rifles (DMRs)

This video from 2016 shows US, Latvian and other troops firing the Zastava M76 and M91 rifles.  Some may call them sniper rifles but they are more DMRs to me.  It’s always interesting to see rifles in practical use and hear some of the coaching going on.  Please note that these are like giant AK rifles that are over-sized to handle the larger rounds.  In contrast, the Dragunov is a different design including:  A short stroke piston that is separate from the bolt carrier, ,the bolt carrier does not have any provision for a piston so it has far less mass, the trigger is in a removable cartridge and the operating spring is mounted in a locking dust cover.

Here’s The Video

Please note that all images were extracted from the video and remain the property of their respective owner(s).

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When Strength and Quality Matter Most